By Gaynor Alder / First Published on July 21, 2009

“I smoke all the time, one after the other” – Greta Garbo

Determined to divorce myself from the nasty on again, off again relationship I have with smoking (the classic love hate relationship), I am now Day 4 sans nicotine. Previous attempts (the best being an 8 month stint) were a painful affair with nicotine refusing to bow out gracefully and accept it was over between the two of us. It would call up, 5, 10, 20 times a day, begging for me to take him back. Come on, what do you say we get the old team back together? We used to be so good you and I, and now you’ve just gone and shut me out of your life. It was as mad as hell I’d abandoned it, and it would do anything to get me back. It was clear I was going to need a good divorce lawyer.

I armed myself with bottles of water, chewing gum, hypnosis cds and enough lavender oil to sedate a class room of children with ADD. I even had a cheer squad who would wave their pom poms at me and shout, “gimme a G”, every time I felt like giving in, but all I wanted to do was to tell them to fuck off and take their pom poms and shove them up their ass (not my finest hour). However, no matter how bad it got, persevere did I! There were mood swings, stomping feet and tantrums as I fought the craving for nicotine that was surging through my veins, but it was time for nicotine to go. I had seen the truth of who he was – a master manipulator who was only in the relationship for himself. The up side of surviving the withdrawals was that my skin was radiating dewiness like a supermodel in a million dollar cosmetics magazine contract (vanity was always the main motivator). “Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s Maybelline?” …. maybe it was no longer smoking a packet of Peter Stuyvesants a day.

So why did I go back? Why did I let him into my life again? Well, it all started with just one (yes that old nutshell). Looking back at the relationship with rose coloured glasses (like every woman in post relationship denial), I wondered if he really was that bad for me, and maybe we could just start seeing each other again on the weekends? Pretty soon, he had barged his way back into my life, taking over me one cigarette at a time until before I knew it, I was completely hooked again. I tried to hide it from my friends (you see, they had nursed me through the bitter break up and I felt ashamed I had taken him back), but the smell of him lingered in all my clothes. When they eventually found out, they couldn’t quite look me in the eye, because they had said all those nasty things about him.

Like all uninvited house guests, he started to wear out his welcome. I was constantly picking up after him, as he was leaving ash trays lying all around the house. Like all useless ex boyfriends, it was time to slam down the phone on him once and for all. This time it was over, really over. So here I am again, detoxing nicotine from my system. Surprisingly, I haven’t had a desire to throw the stapler at any one’s head, nor abuse the person in front of me because they are walking too slowly.

Perhaps leaving things behind that are bad for us, is much easier when we truly realise how much better off we are without them.

One thing is for certain, being a woman comes with it’s challenges. One such challenge begins with H, and unbeknownst to us can, at times, wreak more havoc than we are aware of!

Yep! Those marvelous little things called hormones! They affect, influence and determine a whole range of things from our mood, to our appetite, to our confidence, our energy levels, our body composition, our motivation and our metabolism!

Once upon a time I was quite an androgynous female and had little to no female hormones circulating in my system. Thanks to being an addicted runner with an athletic body fat percentage of just 7%, I was more testosterone than oestrogen or progesterone. Although I did not realise it at the time, this was the primary reason my pain threshold was so high, my motivation and confidence over-brimming, my moods even and my energy enviable!

Fast forward a few years later, and a much healthier body fat percentage of around 20%, I have rather rudely been initiated into the world of raging hormones. In fact, to be more precise I have actually been diagnosed with a condition that officially means my hormones are MESSED UP!

For those who are familiar with it, my condition is called Poly-Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). Increasingly common in today’s world it is an affliction that varies widely in it’s symptoms and effects for each individual, but over ridingly it will translate to an “insulin resistant” type physiology.

So to add to the usual challenges and swings of everyday women hormones, this diagnosis means that paying particular attention and diligence to diet, exercise and stress-management is especially important.

For this reason, I am acutely aware of how hormones can affect us women, and what is within our locus of control to encourage as much as possible, hormone harmony.

Here are my TOP 5 Tips for balancing your hormones through healthy lifestyle habits:

1)   Eat as though you have diabetes

This may sound like a strange recommendation, and perhaps it is, but truly 98% of our population would do very well to pretend they have this condition and eat accordingly! In a nutshell that means loads of fresh veggies and salad, lean proteins, good quality carbohydrates in controlled quantities, as well as moderate amounts of nuts, seeds, fruits and ‘whole food fats’ (ie avocado, coconut, olives, etc).

2)   Move your body everyday

Truly we were designed to move! Physiologically we are perfectly ‘styled’ to move, move, move! Getting your heart rate up each day will enable you to metabolise a million times better, improve your energy levels and balance out your sugar and insulin levels. The type of movement you choose to do is completely up to you! We are all different, and also go through different stages. Some people are more suited to “short and sharp” styles of training, others prefer “long and slow”. As Nike says JUST DO IT! Anyway you like! Dance, walk, run, ride, swim, lift weights, kyak, do yoga, jump on the tampoline! The options are only limited by your imagination.

3)   Meditate

This is the tip I most struggle to get clients to take on board, yet honestly, it is one of the most effective! Our stress levels today are at best high, more commonly insane, and it does absolutely nothing for harmonious hormones! The chemical changes that occur in our body whilst we meditate are beyond incredible and with regular practice will go a long way to encouraging balanced and blissful hormone management.

4)   Change how you think

Again this may sound like a strange recommendation but “what goes on between our ears” is without a doubt the most influential factor on our internal physiology and chemistry. If you are interested in knowing more about this I highly recommend reading ‘The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, & Miracles’ by Dr Bruce Lipton, as well as Deepak Chopra’s ‘Ageless Body, Timeless Mind’. It is a lifetime work to become increasingly aware and conscious of how much choice we have over our thoughts, emotions, reactions and behaviours, and how much these indeed DO determine our experience and reality- and yes, our hormones!

5)   Give yourself a break!

One of the most important things you can do to help yourself achieve Hormone Harmony is to remember that they are a very real factor in how you feel, think and operate! Instead of endlessly criticising yourself for feeling moody, low, unmotivated, unenergised and self-conscious, consider that you may be in the 2^nd half of your cycle and waning testosterone and increasing oestrogen and progesterone could be at cause! Remember that you are not a man with predictable daily hormone shifts, and that you are instead a woman with fluctuating monthly cycles. You need nurturing, nourishing, supporting and flexibility. Be kind and implement the above tips to give yourself the very best chance of not being endlessly at effect of these powerful little chemicals!

Finally I will say…..every time you are “hormonal”, celebrate the fact that you are a woman! Having been “cycle free” for a solid two years I cannot tell you the joy I now experience when I get my “friend”, and how much more light-hearted and forgiving of myself I am when I have a hormonal moment

You are a delicious, feminine being and you are now supposed to be like your male counterparts: predictable, even, always strong, focused, regimented and structured! It is our role to be as Mother Nature demonstrates: wild, spontaneous, sometimes harsh, sometimes beautiful, dynamic and intuitively in flow…

I hope this helps you to LOVINGLY embrace your feminine, hormones and all!

Image Credits: 1

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bridget Jane is a fully accredited and qualified Dietitian who undertook her 4 year Bachelor of Nutrition & Dietetics in Melbourne. Having once been overweight, bullied and incredibly uncomfortable in her own body, Bridget sought out at a young age to find a way to create the health and body she craved, yet in a way that was fun, easy and still allowed her to eat!

It has been almost a 19 year journey, and not a day has gone by in that time that Bridget has not studied some aspect of health, happiness and truly holistic wellbeing. Having evolved from purely a “physical/body” approach and focus, to intensely studying the mind and psychology of it all, to now a completely integrated holistic mind, body and soul approach, Bridget has truly left the title of “Dietitian” in the dust! Bridget does do it differently and to her clients that is an ever so welcome change!

www.newleafnutrition.com.au

By Bridget Thompson

In the final part of our Health Expert, Bridget Jane’s new years health series, she reveals another two ways to avoid committing new years resolution suicide on your health goals. She clarifies what works and flags dead-end pathways that will leave you nothing but frustrated, deflated and right back where you started – Ed.

GOING GUN HO ON THE TAE BO AGAIN

I am all for moving your body and I encourage all my clients to find something they love to do that gets their heart rate going. What I am not for though, is pushing your body and mind into a regime and routine that it just darn well hates!

Above all else this creates a great deal of stress within your body and the stress response causes a release of adrenaline and cortisol into the blood stream which, long story short, encourages the body to store fat. So whilst you may think you are doing great things for your waist line by hauling yourself through gruelling workouts that you hate, in essence you are actually training it to be the world’s best fat storage machine!

As a traditionally trained dietitian, there was a point in time in which I truly believed the weight-game was a simple caloric balancing equation; eat less calories than you use, or use more than you eat. However life was to teach me the hard way that in fact there was much more to this uber simplified equation than meets the eye. I won’t go into nitty gritty here but let me please make it clear that you’re not a programmable robot and you are subject to many more laws, dynamics, influences and chemical complexities than you realise.

The most important factor in achieving successful weight loss and long term health is the stress:relaxation ratio. Simply, stress equals fat gain; and relaxation equals metabolic maximisation. I know it seems and sounds contrary to all that has and is longingly drummed into us, but all I can say in the proof is on the pudding. What works, works. And as far as I have seen, sweating, suffering and swearing your way through torture will never lead to sustained change.

Embrace movement that you love, as often and as intense as you enjoy. It’s that simple. If you happen to love sweating it out as I sometimes do, go for it! If you love meditating on a cushion and doing some gentle stretches, go with that. Variety is the spice of life and listening to your body, rather than brutally over-riding it is the key to success.

DON’T MAKE IT COMPLICATED

Without a doubt, one of the most guaranteed ways to sabotage your New Years Resolve on the health front is to make it complicated! In all honesty, good health is simple! When you start feeling like you need a degree just to make sense of what it is you “should” be doing then you know damn well you are on the wrong bandwagon! Jump off before you go nutty!

Honestly, I have that degree in nutrition and if I was to buy into all the “research” and “evidence” out there I too would go stir crazy! One group of “experts” declare that Paleo is the way to go, another that raw is the Holy Grail… one thing is for sure, everyone has an opinion, and everyone knows best!

What I believe is as I have said, good health is simple. I also believe that you are as unique as your fingerprint and that you are a dynamic, ever-changing being who’s need also change from moment to moment. What suits you now, may not in a few months, years or decades.

I do not believe there is one way that works for everyone. What I do know though is that you are the very best expert that you could possibly go to for advice and I bet that if you were to listen to yourself and take just one little ‘intuitive nudge’ at a time, you would end up finding a way that works great guns for you.

The very worst thing you can do is take on everyone elses advice and end up with a complicated mess in which you are unsure which way is up, down, left or right! Go with common sense and what feels right to you. Drink more water. Eat more veggies. Eat mindfully.

Make 2012 the year that you FINALLY listen to you and connect with what is true for you, and only you, in the realm of health, weight and fitness.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bridget Jane is a fully accredited and qualified Dietitian who undertook her 4 year Bachelor of Nutrition & Dietetics in Melbourne. Having once been overweight, bullied and incredibly uncomfortable in her own body, Bridget sought out at a young age to find a way to create the health and body she craved, yet in a way that was fun, easy and still allowed her to eat!

It has been almost a 19 year journey, and not a day has gone by in that time that Bridget has not studied some aspect of health, happiness and truly holistic wellbeing. Having evolved from purely a “physical/body” approach and focus, to intensely studying the mind and psychology of it all, to now a completely integrated holistic mind, body and soul approach, Bridget has truly left the title of “Dietitian” in the dust! Bridget does do it differently and to her clients that is an ever so welcome change!

BridgetJane

Food Body Lifestyle Guru

www.newleafnutrition.com.au

By Bridget Thompson

Health doesn’t just happen. Yes, well this here is my second post on this lovely space and I will just say it was going to be about a completely different topic, but we will save that for next month! (To give you a heads up we will be tackling how to effortlessly make your menu gluten free. Yes an area that many these days struggle with!)

I will say though that this piece is a perfect pre-read to what will come next month, and in fact furthermore, a brilliant and necessary foundation.

You see, as brutal and unflattering as it may sound, health is not instant. It does not come from a packet, and will not be effortlessly achieved and maintained with a “few week’s” bootcamp, program, shake or pill….

As much as we might like to think that health will happen to us, it just won’t. I know better than anyone the life long journey and commitment creating and maintaining health involves (if you do not know my “overweight and bullied childhood story, then please go here) and I am also here to say that it can be fun and actually quite simple. I am living the example, and I have taught it to hundreds of clients.

Simple does not mean “requiring no effort”, in fact quite the contrary. It does require effort. Time. Investment. Choices. In fact health is a value we must put first if we are to forever after enjoy it’s associated benefits.

Yes, family are important, very much so.

Yes, money is important. Unfortunately the game that we call ‘reality’ insists that it is what makes the world go round.

Yet the reality remains that without your health, you are NO good to your family, in fact you may become a burden, and unfortunately health really can’t be bought (not sustainably anyway), so what good is having money when you do not have your health to enjoy it?

This might sound all idealistic but let me add that the very inspiration for this post has come from witnessing a dear and young friend (28 years of age) suffer the effects of not putting his health first.

Diagnosed over 2 years ago with Type 2 Diabetes- that is, lifestyle induced (poor diet, morbidly obese, sedentary, high alcohol intake, excessive work hours, etc) – this wonderful young man did little to really heed the relatively “kind” warning his body was sending him. Not to say that he did nothing, but in the grand scheme of things, he really didn’t shift health to Number One on the priority list.

Instead he did, as I see most people do, try to carry on as per usual- same crazy schedule, same “default” habits- yet attempting to squeeze in on top of it all, some health behaviours.

I say this with all the love in the world. And compassion. I truly do believe that in the eyes of these people, my friend included, that they are doing their best. They really are trying. Yet as one of my very best coaches once taught me, there is no trying. Exactly what is trying? Can you try to drop a pen? Try it now. Try to drop a pen. You cannot do it. It is a none existent situation. You either DO or DON’T. There is no trying.

For true and permanent health shifts to occur we must really wake up to this reality. As I quote on my business card, “Health is everything”. It is the foundation for life. Without it, all else falls apart.

We all have the opportunity to discover our true health potential. And let me say I have seen people of all backgrounds and ages recover a level of health they never thought possible. They had literally written themselves off as “too old”, “too sick”, “too beyond help”, and then together we showed them how they too could look and feel incredibly amazing, younger, fitter, more energetic, positive and passionate. It is honestly the pleasure of my life to share such a journey with a person.

What is takes though is for a true shift in priorities. In values. I dare say too a belief that you deserve to feel good. That you deserve health. That you deserve to put yourself first.

For some it is self worth issues, some a belief that career/money, family or something else is more important. At the end of the day though, as I mentioned above, what good are you without your health?

YOU are the most important person in your world. YOU are the centre. It’s about time we examined and shifted our priorities and values so that we can be all that we want and more to those and that which we love most.

What do you think?

If you have health related question that you would like Bridget to answer in her next monthly column, then please click here to send it to her.

Bridget Jane is a fully accredited and qualified Dietitian who undertook her 4 year Bachelor of Nutrition & Dietetics in Melbourne. Having once been overweight, bullied and incredibly uncomfortable in her own body, Bridget sought out at a young age to find a way to create the health and body she craved, yet in a way that was fun, easy and still allowed her to eat!

It has been almost a 19 year journey, and not a day has gone by in that time that Bridget has not studied some aspect of health, happiness and truly holistic wellbeing. Having evolved from purely a “physical/body” approach and focus, to intensely studying the mind and psychology of it all, to now a completely integrated holistic mind, body and soul approach, Bridget has truly left the title of “Dietitian” in the dust! Bridget does do it differently and to her clients that is an ever so welcome change!

BridgetJane

Food Body Lifestyle Guru

www.newleafnutrition.com.au

By Gaynor Alder

Instead of hurtling towards January one canape and creamy cocktail at a time, I’ve decided to put the clappers on Christmas, and take a week out to have a health kick to abate the partridge in a pear tree. Getting ahead of my game and all that, so when January does roll around, I’ll be five kilos up on my thighs.

DAY F*%KING ONE

Vitamins – check.

Eat only salads, bown rice, lentils and other health food marlakey - semi check. Consumed salad for both lunch and dinner, but was also tempted by chocolate mousse cake in the fridge. It would have gone in the bin if I hadn’t of eaten it, so I was being environmentally sustainable. Do I get points for that?

Consume my entire body weight in green tea and water in lieu of vino – oh, crap! Two cups of tea, two litres of water, but the bottle of leftover vino somehow found its way to my glass. Is that being on or off the wagon? I thought the saying for good behaviour was getting back on the wagon, but isn’t that where all the liquor is? If it’s off the wagon, then the only way I’m jumping off is if there’s a sign in the distance that says Dan Murphy’s is having a two for one sale on Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc.

Yoga – downward dog anyone? The only stretching I’ve done today is to lift my arm to change the channel on the remote. I wonder if all the typing I’ve done on the keyboard counts at all towards exercise points?

… so clearly not the kind of start I was hoping for. BUT, yes, and oh but, let’s not throw the aspargaus out with the bath water. Because there’s always tomorrow, and don’t the best laid plans always need a bit of tweaking? Isn’t it easy to give up and let a bad day get the best of us? But, that’s not what us modern women are about.

We’re about being real and knowing that we may have a few hiccups along the way, but we’re still going to remain committed to our goals. We’re not going to let a few extra glasses of Sauvignon Blanc or a half eaten chocolae mousse cake thwart our efforts. We’re going to get back up, and commit to change. One can of lentils at a time.

Stay tuned tomorrow for day two. A-ha-ha-hem, promise I’ll try harder.

Gaynor Alder, Editor-in-Chief of The Modern Woman’s Survival Guide is a Melbourne based writer with a penchant for vintage glamour and all things Parisian. When not gallivanting around the countryside as a Travel Writer or being the Style Expert for ‘Art of the Cocktail Hour’, you will find her here, penning her thoughts and writing of her day to day adventures. You may even get a sneak preview of her book, but that all depends on her mood – a direct reflection of the state of her hair on any one day.

She is a fully accredited and qualified dietitian who undertook her 4 year Bachelor of Nutrition & Dietetics in Melbourne. Having once been overweight, bullied and incredibly uncomfortable in her own body, Bridget sought out at a young age to find a way to create the health and body she craved, yet in a way that was fun, easy and still allowed her to eat!

So without further ado, let me hand you over to Bridget …

I think most of you would agree that somewhere within you - either quite easily discernable, or more deeply buried, there lies a bitch. An unrelenting, unreasonable, critical and downright rude cow who can cause a person to run a mile with their tail between their legs just by glancing at them.

For the most part, this bitch is a magnificent aspect of ourselves that can serve and protect in so many gorgeous ways. When we use her properly, people don’t dare to cross us wrongly, or if they do they never do it again, we get what we want and we move forward in life confidently, with ease and a whole lotta “Yeah baby!”

However, when used wrongly, or plain and simply just too much, then a whole lot of unhappiness can ensue.

One of the main areas we do not consciously realize this bitch can run rampant is within ourselves. Always expecting, pressuring, analysing, judging, criticising, she just doesnot let up! Nothing is EVER good enough and when we do finally do something right, instead of praise, she turns her attention to yet something else we’ve stuffed up! Am I right?

Yep, if we are not careful, this unrelenting biarch can well and truly make life one uphill battle after another.

The reason I want to address this with you today is because from here on in I will be sharing with you in this monthly column, my utter most passion and that is health. You see for me, as a young overweight, picked-on, book-loving, couch-potato kid, health wasn’t so easy. I constantly felt tired, self conscious, uncomfortable, inadequate and just plain FAT!

All I ever wanted was to fit into a pair of trendo jeans and wear all the cool stuff my friends were wearing instead of the stretch, fluoro lycra that seemed to be the only thing that would fit my horizontally oversized body.

There were a few challenges to my would-be journey to health and the body I craved and they were:

a) I love food and LOTS of it

b) I deter vomiting and was not prepared to utilise that method to get into jeans

c) I hated physical activity and was also tragically bad at it! You know those kids picked last and grudingly on the school sports teams? That was me! I was also the kid that if you “stood on the lines” you loved me, and for most that was a totally gross suggestion!

So yes, my journey to where I am today was not so smooth, or easy, but I did my best to make it fun! In the early days I was really good at what I have now come full circle to realise is the missing key ingredient in a successful health/weight journey- and that is being your own best ally.

I never told myself “you can’t have”, “you shouldn’t”, you have to”, and so forth. Deprivation, dieting and struggle were NOT part of the equation. I focused on all the yummy foods I could eat, how I could make all my favourite things just a “little” healthier. I worked gradually and with curious wonder, excited about all the fabulous things I didn’t yet know and had to discover.

At some point however, I got off the “lets make it fun, enjoyable and sustainable” track, and somehow the bitch took over in full force. EVERYTHING was judged, analysed, criticised and picked to pieces- food, exercise, myself, everything….! Life, health and my body all became serious and matters that I could not relax about or enjoy. I constantly focused on being “right” all the time and prided myself on being “perfect” in so many areas; on being so disciplined.

A wall was built between myself and others and anything or anyone that threatened to interfere with or ruin my regime was promptly steamrolled. I loved being “on top of it”, of feeling so in control. Little could I see that so many areas of my life suffered because of my intense and irrational ways.

I created a world in which the way I was was acceptable. My partner accepted me, I didn’t have much time for friends, but those I did also endured me. All the while I had no idea that I had become a slave to an unrelenting, insatiable and condemning bitch. Constant criticism was my companion- again I really had no idea. I was a robot. I thought I was happy.

Along the way I have had many layers of learning that have shown me just how small, menial and superficial I had made my life. I had no time to ever stop and smell the roses, and quite frankly I didn’t understand why I would want to. These days I buy myself at least two bunches of flowers a week and admire and appreciate there beauty with so much gratitude it’s hard to describe. I enjoy enriching relationships and have time to talk to friends, strangers and family!

There is so much to share with you about the challenges that did ultimately help me to wake up, but we have plenty of time to get to know each other. For now I want to leave you with this one point.

If you cannot truly say you like yourself, if you constantly criticise and judge yourself, pushing to always be better, more, faster, prettier, then life will be a never ending treadmill and deep below fear will be your fuel. You may enjoy life however it will pale in comparison to what is possible when you simply make friends with you and decide that you are going to be your own best cheerleader.

In the area of health, and weight, I promise you that too, unless you learn to truly love and honour yourself, you will always ride the merry-go-round of “sometimes good”, “sometimes bad”, always “need to do something to feel/look better”…it never ends it just goes round and round, up and down. The alternative is that you decide to enjoy the journey as it indeed informs the destination.

Take advice from my wise 10 year old self; have fun, focus on what you love and what makes you feel good; don’t deprive and never EVER diet! And most of all, EASE UP on yourself! You are perfectly imperfect in every moment. Start to notice what IS great about you; what you DO do right; why where you are is exactly where you are meant to be; and you CAN do anything you put your mind to, IF you have YOU on your side!

Lots of Love,

BridgetJane

Food Body Lifestyle Guru

www.newleafnutrition.com.au

There was a time when I relished being healthy, trading in my Marie Clare for health magazines, drinking water and eating only organic food for the inner glow and the energy that it gave me. A picture of health was I.

But then, I was knocked around with health problems, and my health became a serious issue. I had to take so many vitamins that I rattled when I walked, and quite frankly, it sucked. When I got better, my all or nothing nature took hold, and I went on a bender for a number of years, consuming my entire body weight in vino and chain smoking cigarettes like a bingo lady.

But now, I’m getting back in touch with my health. I abstain from alcohol four to five days of the week, drink water and swallow more fish oil than a pubescent teenager with PMT. However, I’ve lost the joie de vivre I used to have for it. I do it because I know it’s good for me and if I don’t fatigue comes knocking back at my door, barging in uninvited and strapping me to me bed and holding my life to ransom.

So I still find it quite a chore to do all the things I need to do maintain my health. Drink water. Avoid gluten. Take vitamins. Abstain from alcohol. Quit smoking. Eat well. Do some yoga. Anyone for a gin and tonic?

But what I need is a shift in perception. Sure I have to manage these things, but can I enjoy them again? Can I find the passion I once had for embracing my health with all the gusto of Carrie Bradhsaw at a shoe sale.

So, whilst I sit here sipping on a green tea, tell me, do you find taking care of your health a chore or a pleasure? What inspires you to keep healthy?

But, fatigue has made another unwelcome guest appearance, barging in like a obnoxious teenager gate crashing a party with a six pack of Bicardi Breezers, and it’s left me running on empty. Constantly. It’s one of those rather pesky spells of fatigue whereby not even sleeping for twelve hours seems to take the edge off it.

I wake each morning without the energy to face the day, but go on I must, and so I drag myself to the shower and board the morning train still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. Rest, rest, rest my body urges. Craves for. Yearns for. But commitments I must keep and pay the bills I must.

Push on an on I go, attending each social engagement and meeting work commitments of my day job, hoping my little legs will hold me up and my body will hang in there (pretty please). Push on and on I go, whilst hoping that the next day I will wake up and fatigue will have packed up its things and decided to shove off. But like any bad guest at  a party, fatigue leaves a trail of debris in its wake and the effects linger on for days, and sometimes weeks.

Sleep has become my number one fantasy and I lust for it like a porn addict does double d cleavage. I snatch sleep in my relentless schedule whenever I can, collapsing into bed, and caressing my sheets and pillow like I’m being reunited with a long lost lover. Oh Tontine, I do love thee so. Please let me stay here in your arms a little longer.

It’s hard not to get frightened that fatigue is coming back for good, like it did plaguing me for all those years – and it’s equally hard not to get frustrated and overwhelmed. Frustrated that I thought I’d given it its marching orders long ago and now it’s back at a time when so many good things are happening in my life, and overwhelmed with how to hold down my life whilst battling through the exhaustion.

I’ve been popping vitamins like Lindsay Lohan on a bender, but they’re not really helping. Because what I really need is time. Time to push pause and let my body recuperate. Time free of pressures and deadlines. Time just for me.

I have another week until a major work deadline is met, and then I can start to unwind and relax. Take some annual leave. Sleep in every morning. Get a massage. Rest as long as my body god damn wants to. Because my body has had a gutful of meeting everyone’s demands and not its own, and my life has too many fabulous and exciting things happening it for me not to be match fit.

I am starting my new 3 day work week in my day job so that I have more time for my writing, but also for me. So, as I take this time to honour my bodys natural rhythms and its pleas for rest, I will vow to keep living a life that is conducive to my well being regardless of what society demands of me.

Image Credit: 1

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is an illness of our modern times, but one that is often met with disbelief, persecution and a complete lack of support. After suffering with an illness that has completely debilitated her for over a decade, it’s no surprise to hear that she has resorted to attempts to take her life. What makes me so angry, is that it shouldn’t have to be like this.

Why isn’t the Australian government injecting money into research about this modern illness? Why are so many people silently suffering and needlessly losing so many years of their lives? Why are people like Theda having to resort to taking their own lives because they simply can’t endure the pain of their existence anymore?

I’ll tell you why. Because people still don’t believe this is a legitimate illness. Just for a moment, even for a second, think about how it would feel if you had cancer and the hospital and doctors turned you away because they didn’t believe you, and left you to suffer on your own. This is how a CFS patient feels every day. Some might argue CFS isn’t life threatening, but I beg to differ. Not only because of Theda’s recent attempts to take her life, but also because CFS robs people of their life, day in and day out. Day after day. Week after week. Year after year.

You can read the article that I wrote in Onya Magazine last year about Theda Myint and her mother Carol’s quest for support by clicking here. I highly recommend that you do, before reading the below excerpt from WA Today.

A Perth woman battling chronic fatigue syndrome was committed to the locked ward of Fremantle Hospital after an attempt to euthanise herself in a desperate bid to address her crippling condition.

Theda Myint, 34, has grappled with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) – better known as chronic fatigue syndrome – for 11 years. The condition has left her bedridden with crippling migraines, severe body pain and an extremely low tolerance to light and noise.

She and her mother, Carol Adams, have campaigned to raise awareness of the condition, which they say is commonly misunderstood in the medical world.

The pair have also lobbied the state government to subsidise her medical treatments, which they say must be administered in the home due to the debilitating nature of her condition, but their requests have so far been rebuffed.

Ms Myint was rushed to hospital by ambulance last Wednesday after attempting to end her life for the third time in five weeks.

Her mother Carol Adams said ambulance, emergency and intensive care staff were “fantastic” in treating her debilitating ME pain, and it wasn’t until she was transferred to one of the hospital’s medical wards that things took a turn for the worst.

Ward staff informed Ms Adams that they would not be able to provide food for her daughter due to her intolerances to potatoes, gluten, eggs, lactose and legumes brought on by her condition. In desperation, the family was forced to turn to highly processed food from a vending machine after Ms Myint went without food for two days.

While on the medical ward, a psychiatrist reviewed her case in light of her suicide attempt and made the decision to move her onto a locked ward, rescinding her rights and placing doctors in full control of her wellbeing.

“She was in so much pain. As soon as she was put in the locked ward, her ME needs were not being met,” Ms Adams said. “She was in a nine out of 10 for pain, and she was being refused treatment for that.

“She asked to have a hot bath or shower to ease her pain, and she was told she couldn’t because it would disturb the other patients.

“She asked to see another doctor, and she was refused. She then asked to be taken back to emergency, and that was also refused because she was in the psychiatric ward.”

It was then that Ms Adams appealed to WAtoday.com.au for help. After a call was placed by this website to the hospital on Saturday morning, Ms Myint began getting the treatment she required and that afternoon she was released from hospital.

“It was only in desperation that we contacted the media, as our requests to the hospital had been refused,” Ms Adams said.

A Fremantle Hospital spokeswoman refused to directly address Ms Adams’ accusations about her daughter’s treatment.

“We have every confidence in the care provided to Theda during her recent admission to Fremantle Hospital,” she said. “We are unable to comment any further due to patient confidentiality.”

Health Minster Kim Hames also declined to comment on Ms Myint’s treatment at Fremantle Hospital last week, citing issues of patient confidentiality.

Now back home, Ms Myint is under 24-hour watch by her mother, who said she was deeply concerned that she may try to harm herself again.

“She is extremely distressed and she just wants to die,” she said.

“She has just lost all hope. She doesn’t believe anyone can help her anymore. She’s had so many knockbacks and has been let down so many times, she’s just frightened to have hope.”

Ms Adams’ previous appeals to the state government to subsidise in-home treatments have been ignored, with Dr Hames previously telling the family that he was “unable to direct any doctor to provide care outside what they consider to be standard medical practice”.

Why was Theda denied food she could eat? Why was she submitted to the psychiatric ward when her illness isn’t psychiatric? Why on earth are people with CFS treated in this way? Why should it take another decade or god forbid, even more before modern medicine catches up and recognises this illness, and worse still, why should Theda have to be cruelly subjected to this in the interim and potentially lose her life?

My post work drink (well, haven’t I been a good girl, I think I’ll pour myself a glass of vino) has slowly yet surely become a bottle a night, and on the weekends, I can drink 2 bottles and remain coherent and even leave my shoes on in public. Yes, I am referred to by some as one who can “put it away”. Oh dear.

The thing is this. I don’t consider myself an alcoholic by any stretch of the imagination, but I will admit my consumption is excessive and is something I want to change. The other thing I know is that there are many other modern woman out there in the same boat.

Drinking has become integrated into our daily lives, something we do with friends, to reward ourselves or simply unwind. We can drink a bottle a night, yet still function perfectly at work the next day sans a hangover. The fabulous Jo Bassett, Life Coach from Living Savvy, said her moment of clarity came when she when to crack open her second bottle of vino for the night and realised she was stone cold sober. She also posted this link of a radio discussion on ABC’s Life Matters about this very topic:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2009/2688627.htm

Being the fabulous and savvy woman that Jo is, she gave me some brilliant advice for moderating my vino consumption, as it is something I am currently shining the spotlight on with my coaching with Jo – she suggests drinking red cordial or lemonade out of a wine glass. As Jo is all about making small sustainable shifts in your life to create the extraordinary, I am committing to an ‘AFD’ – an alcohol free day a week. I will gradually increase this until I am drinking in a more balanced way.

I am also setting foundations for new healthy habits in my life. Every Wednesday (my day off from work) is now “All About Me” and entails visits to the hairdressers for weekly blow dries and the likes. I am also currently investigating a yoga/pilates class and will soon be walking around the botannical gardens once a week (‘doing the tan’ as we Melbournians affectionately like to call it). Not only will my waist line benefit from the reduction in vino consumption, but so will my well being with the healthy habits I am implementing into my life.

Confession time: how much wine or alcohol do you drink during the week?

Image credit: 1

Looking back from where I was to where I am now, you’d hardly believe I was the same girl. I work full time and have a full social life now, compared to when I used to struggle to work 12 hours per week straightening coat hangers in retail for four hours at a time without collapsing in a heap and running to the toilets to hide my tears of yet another day of battling to stand upright.

I have been lucky to recover from this ghastly illness, however I still occasionally crash and have to watch my lifestyle so that I don’t burn out and crash from overwhelm and exhaustion and have to take to my bed for three days until I recover.

So, just how did I overcome over a decade of fatigue to be the upwardly mobile person that I am now, who can now carve out a proper life for myself and work towards all the things my heart longed for, for all of those years?

Well, it wasn’t easy. But, it could have been made a hell of a lot easier, had there been more support. More understanding. More recognition. For, trying to cope with chronic fatigue syndrome, let alone recover from it, is a constant uphill battle. Not only because of the nature of the illness, but due to the constant knocks you have to take from unsupportive people when you are already down.

1. Surround Yourself With People Who Love and Respect You

Looking back, one of the best things I did for myself, was to remove myself from unsupportive people and environments. Every skerrick of energy for a CFS sufferer is precious, and you simply don’t have the reserves to handle the persecution and attacks from others who think you are just being lazy or tell you to just pull your socks up and get on with it, or more so people who are envious that you don’t have to work when they do (not that they directly communicate that of course). WTF you say? Yes, the irony was not lost on me either. Remove yourself from these people now.

Surround yourself with people who love and care for you. Surround yourself with people who have your best interests at heart. Surround yourself with people who respect you, even if they themselves don’t understand what it is you are going through, because hell, we ourselves don’t understand why fatigue flattens us like a semi trailer that just ran over us (and then backs up and runs back over us again and again, every time we attempt to get back up).

If you need additional support, seek out a Counsellor who you resonate with and visit them when you can. Even if it’s just to have a listening ear and for someone to acknowledge what you are going through. Because, you need people in your life who are going to shake your poms poms for you, when you can’t.

2. Slow Down and Celebrate Your Successes (No Matter How Small)

Yes, it’s ironic. But, one of the major turning points for me was learning to accept the condition as part of my life and rest when I needed to – without guilt. No, I never gave up on finding a cure, but I learnt to have more patience with myself. Recovery was going to take time, and unless I learnt to accept it, then it was going to swallow me hole.

I started to celebrate each small milestone, and let me tell you they were fucking small at first. Like being able to write for five minutes on the computer. Or do the dishes (who would have though doing the dishes could be cause for celebration?) Or go out with my friends. I learnt not to push past what my body was telling me it was capable of, because that only meant I would go backwards and have to spend even more time in bed.

3. Never Give Up

After doing endless rounds of medical appointments, being poked, prodded and tested for every disease known to mankind, and forking out money you simply don’t have to swallow more tablets than Amy Winehouse on a bender, it’s inevitable that you may start to give up hope.

The perplexing thing about this illness, is that there isn’t any one answer for everyone. It’s a complex condition, that is often a result of a myriad of underlying issues. Like peeling back the layer of an onion, treating CFS can be a combination of successfully treating one health issue, before you can move onto to treat the next one.

This is also a symptom of the seeming lack of research by medical professionals, who they themselves will often admit they do not understand it. Delving deeper into this, I can’t help but wonder why more research isn’t being conducted into this epidemic that has slowly yet surely insidiously worked its way into society. Until medical professionals and the government unite as a whole, CFS sufferers will continue to struggle to find the help they need and needlessly and quietly lose precious years of their lives. Because, yes, CFS sufferers want to get better. They want to work again. They want to live again.

However, as hard as they may to be find, there are exceptional medical professionals who have committed to helping CFS sufferers. I was lucky enough to find a Nutritional GP, who had undertaken additional studies in new fields of medicine. I just wish I had found him sooner.

Image Credits: 1, 2

Question Time: If you are or have suffered from CFS, what has helped you on your journey?

After too many nights on the vino, way too many cigarettes and a hideous bout of self recrimination, I inevitably vow to go on a health kick. Right, that’s it. No liquor for a week. I’m quitting smoking. Eating healthy. Going to start exercising. Crossing everything off my to do list.  Only think happy thoughts.

At first I go great guns and feel grand. My skin starts radiating a healthy glow, and I realise that all those supermodels must be right when they bang on about drinking water (although I’m still dubious that they can attribute their good looks to just drinking water – maybe I should inject the stuff into my veins, and then I can have supermodel good looks too?)

I feel so virtuous and radiating with health, that surely I must have already lost 6 kilos, but I am merely the memory of the skinny me, which is all good until I walk past a shop window and see the overweight present me staring back at me, and my bubble is burst. But I’ve been so good, why I am not skinny yet? Oh, that’s right it’s only been 3 or 4 days on this health kick malarkey.

However, thanks to Jo Bassett at Living Savvy, I have learnt that change takes time and major overhauls are unsustainable. Although my present state of health still makes me want to hop on the exercise bike in manner of Bridget Jones (as though I can manically peddle of 15 kilos in one session), I know deep down inside that this is never going to work.

Instead, I am favouring “fine tuning” my life in order to reach my goals. Small baby steps that will make a difference bit by bit, until I emerge out the other side as the person I want to be. Yearn to be. Would love to be.

For it is achievable, because I have been that person before. I know the reasons why I have used excessive drinking and unhealthy habits as a coping mechanism over the past few years. But just like a carton of milk that has gone sour, these habits have past their expiration date. I have delved into the fears that are holding me back from being the person I now want to be, and I realise they too have past their expiration date. For I don’t need these coping mechanisms now, because my life is grand and I have much to look forward to. But, unless I face these fears, I will stay in this perpetual cycle of spinning my wheels and getting nowhere fast.

So after Jo asked me to write my letter to my future self, she asked me to start fine tuning my life in March, and implementing some of the things I want in my life. Over the next 4 weeks, I am going to start a pilates class and walk around the Botanical Gardens once a week (affectionately known as “doing the tan” in Melbourne). I am also going to reduce my drinking, by cutting it down to half which I feel is very sustainable for me.  Please don’t get me wrong, I have no plans to put down the bottle for good, as I love a cool and crisp sauv blanc in summer and a smooth full bodied merlot in the winter, but I know I will enjoy it all the more in moderation.

I will also soon be writing about the things that help keep me connected to myself, such as getting my hair and nails done and walking on the beach, as these are the things that help us to maintain our balance and not reach out for unhealthy habits.

How could you start fine tuning your life?

Don’t forget to visit Living Savvy to learn more about fine tuning your life to live the extraordinary.

I hate going to the dentist so much, that I put off having a filling even when I fear it has become a root canal situation.  Do they really think I believe that the pictures of “calming” beach scenes are anything but a pathetic attempt to delude me out of the pain they’re about to inflict on me?  “Now, open up wide whilst I shove this 10cm needle into your gum, drill for 20 minutes and then suck the insides of your mouth out so hard that I could lift you out of your chair”.  Aaah but it’s okay, there’s a lovely picture of a tropical island to look at. I think not.

Let’s not forget to mention, the nauseating sick to the stomach smell of antiseptic, the hideous amounts of money I have to pay for them to inflict such torture onto me and the fear that I’m going to be told off for not flossing properly leaving me feeling like a 7 year old (I was much happier to visit the dentist then, as it was a morning off school and a sticker and I’d do anything at that age for a sticker especially of the scratch and sniff variety).

When I finally plucked up the courage to visit the dentist, imagine my surprise when instead of an old grey haired wrinkled man, was a hot young graduate (note, this was prior to meeting the even hotter man in my life, who leaves this dental graduate for dead).  Oh crap, why did I have that cigarette to calm my nerves of impending filling? Why didn’t I bring floss with me to floss before my appointment? Why didn’t I brush four times a day since my last visit? Is my lip waxed? Am I going to have to put on those hideous black safety glasses and please, please God,  don’t let me cry if I have to have a needle.

I now have stellar dental hygienge – I floss like a demon and brush my teeth morning and night. I make an appointment if my tooth so much as twinges and always arrive early immaculately groomed. I distract myself from the pain, by calculating how much he earns for a root canal and how many handbags that could buy me if we were to ever take our doctor patient relationship to the next level.

Image credits: 1

Medical emergencies involving the lower regions require prompt action, but the mere mention of the words ”pap smear” will have most women cross their legs so tight they get a varicose vein.  Women will procrastinate on this gross violation of their private parts potentially risking cancer, with every two years, being every two years too many.

Perhaps it has something to do with exposing your intimate parts to a complete stranger under a fluorescent spotlight, leaving them absolutely no doubt as to when you’re due for your next wax? Maybe it’s having a cold metal object inserted into your aforementioned parts to look for your cervix, which doesn’t like the cold metal probe either and decides to play hide and seek with it? After the doctor counts to ten, she tells your cervix she’s coming to find it, ready or not.  It of course finds a really good hiding spot, requiring twenty minutes of poking and prodding your insides. When she finally finds it, she lets you know by scraping away at it with a spatula.

I find purchasing thrush treatment equally as unpleasant. When I have to purchase the offending item, I will travel to a chemist an hour away from home and stand at the door to ensure that it’s a female (can just imagine male chemist thinking, there goes the one with the thrush whose also dosed up to her eyeballs on prozac – think I might ask her out on a date).

I enter the chemist with my head down and hover behind the cosmetics shelves until the counter is clear of customers. I then make a dash to counter and place the prescription down. I wait for chemist to fill prescription and as soon as it’s ready I snatch the packet in its protective paper bag and do a runner for the door. However, just as I’m nearly out the door and on safe ground, the chemist pipes up in their loudest voice, “so Gaynor, have you taken this thrush treatment before?”

I am currently busted up with the flu, post an episode of exhaustion. Our bodies do seem to have a way of slowing us down when we need to rest – even if it means having to use a whole box of tissues in one sitting. I’m lucky I have a lovely man in my life with a Florence Nightingale bedside manner, who will do anything to make sure I am feeling better, and a flatmate who will bring me icy poles and cook my meals (in the absence of my mum who is in Perth, and well since I’m a big girl now, I could hardly lob myself on her doorstep every time I had the flu).

But there’s been times when I’ve been sick and been all on my lonesome, and there’s nothing worse than looking after yourself in such times, especially when you’re throwing up like the exorcist and can’t move more than 30 seconds away from the toilet. Even though I’m all grown up, I still want my mum when I’m sick – I just want her to bring me a glass of lemonade and a cold flannel like she used to when I was little.

Being sick at school, meant that my dear nanna came to pick us and we spent the day at her house. Nanna always gave you a bag of Pascall Columbines and a big packet of Twisties, and you knew you were really sick when you couldn’t eat them. The afternoon was spent laying on her lounge watching Wheel of Fortune, picking an “N for Nally” and buying vowels from John Burgess (with the breeze from the open window washing over you whilst her curtains flapped in the breeze – oh, how I miss her and her house since she passed all those years ago). Of course, nanna always worked them out before me and I thought she was the smartest person in the whole world, but then again, I believed my nanna was the best at everything and still do. My sister enjoyed being “sick” at nanna’s so much, that she developed a severe case of hypochondria and the school had nanna’s number on speed dial.

I’ve spent the week resting, but I’m one of those people who despite being genuinely sick feels guilty to call in sick, and spend the time off feeling perpetually guilty that I’m not at work – hardly conducive to recuperation. The irony of the people who aren’t really sick chucking a sickie and spending their time off happy as Larry (why is Larry so happy I wonder?) is not lost on me.

After going back to work before feeling better, so in order to not fall behind, I finished the week and now that it’s Saturday, I’ve finally allowed myself to do the things I should’ve been doing all week. Snuggling up with my doona (well two doonas and a pair of sockies on my feet so as to avoid the chill I feel). Watching DVDs with the sunshine streaming in through the window. Forgetting about my in tray and focusing on myself.

Anyone for chicken soup?

Kate Traeger, our Health Expert has designed a one week challenge for readers of The Modern Woman’s Survival Guide – the ideal plan to clean up and kick start a healthy lifestyle – Ed.

ONE WEEK MODERN WOMAN’S SURVIVAL GUIDE HEALTH CHALLENGE

7am

Protein based meal  – protein shake with berries or a green smoothie.

9am

Carbohydrate meal – 50gm natural muesli or a nut, seeds and flax mix like Kapai Puku with 100gm  diet/natural non-fat yoghurt

11am

Protein snack – 100gm cottage cheese or tin of tuna with celery, carrot or cucumber sticks. Flavoured tuna is fine, just drain it well.

1pm

Protein + small carbohydrate meal – 150gm tuna, salmon, chicken or lean meat with salad or vegies and ½ cup of basmati or brown rice or 1 small slice of wholegrain/rye or gluten free bread

3pm

Protein snack – tuna or cottage cheese and crudités a or non-fat/diet yoghurt

4.30pm

Carbohydrate snack – piece of fruit eg. apple or pear

6.30pm

Protein meal – 200gm fish, chicken, lean Meat and steamed or stir fried vegies or a large salad – use stock, vinegar, ginger, chilli, soy, lemon, lime and fresh herbs for flavours.

8.30pm

Protein Snack – 100gm cottage cheese, 5 or 6 natural almonds or walnuts, a boiled egg.

THE KEYS

- Vary your meals and snacks – don’t have chicken at lunch and dinner or 3 yoghurts in one day or only eat cottage cheese.  The snacks are interchangeable – give your body variety. If you feel like sweet, add cinnamon or have a diet yoghurt, if you feel like savoury, have the tuna snacks.

- Drink lots of water , herbal or green tea or 1 (black preferably) coffee per day.

- Move daily! A minimum of 30 minutes – preferably an hour. Tick it off in your diary and set your new pattern.

- Weigh yourself at the beginning of the week and at the end.

- If you want to keep going you can, but I recommend only sticking to a disciplined structured diet like this for a maximum of 2 weeks in a row, then let the pressure off (20%!) for a week and then back on it. Follow the principles all the time though. Remember success is in the follow through.

Let us know how you feel along the way and at the end of your one week challenge.

ASK KATE

Click here to email Kate with your health and fitness related questions, which she will be answering in her upcoming monthly column.

BE HEALTHY!

Believe you are, and you are.

Kate Traeger

Trae Health |  403 Bay St Port Melbourne VIC 3207 | P. 0412 907 548

www.traehealth.com.au

You have probably heard them before – but that is because simple, research based principles work – they’re proven! So here they are…. your Golden Rules of Health to eat, move and be healthy. Go get the body you deserve!

EAT

1. Eat regular low GI, high protein or moderate carbohydrate snacks and meals – every 2-3 hours eat a small snack or meal to keep your metabolism firing all day long. Yes, eat more frequently to lose weight, particularly body fat. Aim for alternate protein/carbohydrate meals with low GI carbohydrates like nuts, seeds, rice or oats.

2. Drink water. 2-4L per day. Get a BPA free drink bottle (it doesn’t degrade like plastic) and take it everywhere with you. Keep it full and drink before you are thirsty. Thirst shows up when you are already dehydrated.

3. Low fat does not equal low fat on your body. Your cellular function relies on essential fatty acids. You will improve your skin, hair, nails and cognitive function by including healthy fats such as oily fish, nuts, seeds, flaxmeal, avocado and flaxseed or Udo’s Oil in your diet. Fat also adds flavour and lowers the speed at which carbohydrates are released into your blood stream, keeping you full and preventing insulin (your storage hormone) from spiking.

4. Eat right 80% of the time. The other 20% be moderate with your indulgences – a glass of wine, sharing a small dessert, eating a little more than you should just because it tastes good. Do taste and savour foods you love and really desire occasionally. They are ‘goddess foods’. Feed your spirit with them.

5. Keep your indulgences social, special, celebratory and fun. Share it – don’t eat it all! You will feel good about yourself, the indulgence and the experience if you practice this.

6. Pay attention to what your body runs well on. If your feel good on protein based foods, eat these. If you need a carbohydrate meal to get you going in the morning eat this type of food. Listen to your body. You can’t run an unleaded car on leaded fuel. Put the right fuel into your body for your engine. Test it out. Don’t listen to what everyone else is experimenting with. Your engine is unique and it is your job to figure it out and fuel it. If you’re struggling, let me know.

7. Alcohol – the most effective strategy I have found that works for myself,  my patients and clients is to set a limit and stick to it! Plan and prepare. If you’re going out for dinner and have already decided you will not be drinking, order a mineral water, tell everyone you’re not drinking and you won’t. It means you know what you’re doing when the waiter hands out the wine list. If you decide on one for the night – decide when you are going to have it and drink mineral water before and after it. Decide, be prepared and do it. It’s easier than trying to decide on the spot and fighting the little angel and demon hovering on your shoulders.

8. Have a general weekly rule. Be realistic, if 2 drinks once a week works for you – great. Or 1 drink on 2 separate days. Or 4 drinks per week (2×2 or 1×2 and 2×1). Take a step down from where you are to make a change and review it in order to get to your ideal.

MOVE

1. Make daily movement a priority! Set your standard. If 30 minutes a day makes you feel good make it your minimum. Like brushing your teeth. I personally need 1 hour a day to feel good. It’s my minimum and it is a MUST. Prioritise it and make it a must. Just like brushing your teeth, you must move daily.

2. Listen to your body and choose either soft or hard exercise based on your energy levels, feelings and mood. Walk, run, weights, stretch, yoga, ride or swim …

3. Learn what works for you and do what you love. If you love walking, walk. If you love yoga, do yoga. If you love weights – go to the gym. It’s not rocket science. You will do it if you enjoy it. What have you loved in the past? Look at what has worked for you and do that. Schedule it daily. If first thing in the morning works for you, get up, throw your runners and leggings on and go! You will feel great  for the rest of the day.  If you can walk, run or go to the gym or a class with a friend or your partner plan it and do it. You are more committed and accountable when you plan something with others, and will enjoy it even more.

4. Have a weekly schedule so you know where your exercise time fits.

5. Get new runners or a cool singlet top, new togs, a trackie or leggings. If you feel good, have the gear you need and look the part you will want to get out, show it off and play with it. It always motivates me to move and makes me feel good.

Follow Part 3 tomorrow, for a fabulous one week health challenge.

ASK KATE

Click here to email Kate with your health and fitness related questions, which she will be answering in her upcoming monthly column.

BE HEALTHY!

Believe you are, and you are.

Kate Traeger

Trae Health |  403 Bay St Port Melbourne VIC 3207 | P. 0412 907 548

www.traehealth.com.au

The Perfect Physical, Emotional and Spiritual start to your 2011, by Kate Traeger

In her first article for The Modern Woman’s Survival Guide (a 3 part series including a one week health challenge), Kate Traeger from Trae Health (our new resident Health Expert), discusses reflecting on your 2010, in order to create successful goals for 2011, so that you can move away from what you don’t want, and successfully move towards what you do want.

Kate aims to inspire and empower you to achieve peak health, and well aren’t we lucky to have her here on board at The Modern Woman’s Survival Guide?

Kate will be making a guest appearance here on a monthly basis, to answer your health related questions and share her extensive health related knowledge. You lucky doers, you.

Without further ado, here she is …

A new year has begun, and too a new decade. This creates the opportunity to take stock of where you are at, where you are going and where you ideally want to be. This applies to all aspects of your life, your physical health, your lifestyle, relationships, finances and career.

It’s now the perfect time to set some goals. So sit down and look back  over your 2010 ‘the year in review’.  The ideal way  to do this and set yourself up for the best year possible, is to write a list of month by month themes and achievements from the past year. Look for highlights, defining moments and trends and then look over your list to see if these are aligned with what you actually see as your priorities and focus.  What was most important? What did you achieve? What do you wish you had spent more time on?

From this list look at what you may have expended unnecessary energy on and focus on and what you would prefer to focus your time and precious energy on this year.

Make a list of your goals, values, priorities and those things you want to focus on and write or type it up and tape it on your mirror or somewhere you will read it daily. This is your focus. Make sure you have goals which embrace all aspects of your life – your health (of course!), relationships, finances, career, self, family, friends … You can make this a dot point list or a statement about who you are and what you are committed to – for you. A manifesto.

Create an opposing list of those things that you do not want to give your time, focus and attention on. The things that waste your time, don’t make you feel good and are unproductive. Put the list of things, habits, people, events and activities you do not want to spend time on or indulge in – in the bin! Each time you are faced with one of these things/activities/thoughts or behaviours during the year remember you have binned them, visualize this and refocus your mind on your focus list. You will move toward what you focus on. So be specific!

Now you are clear on your personal priorities, lets talk about health!

How do you want to look and feel in your body?  Are you feeling lithe, sexy, energised, fit and healthy? Is feeling like this important to you?

Are you happy with your body and it’s state of health inside and out? How do you look, and more importantly, how do you FEEL? IF you are looking and feeling fantastic, keep doing what you are doing! Five gold stars and kudos to you!

If you are not – and let’s be honest, most of us are not, let’s focus on the key things you CAN DO to get the level of health, vitality, and the body, you deserve.  So, let’s begin.

The small things, which make a massive difference to your health if you do them! By that I mean stick to these golden principles 80% of the time for the entire year and you will look, fit and feel good this time next year. If you are needing to lose weight then stick to these 90% of the time. That’s it. It’s the 80/20 rule, or if things need to change 90/10 and when you get there (to your goal) you get to play with 80/20. For life – that’s it.

Follow Part 2 of this series on Wednesday, where Kate will guide you on the principles of eating and moving for health, and inspire you to feel your best.

BE HEALTHY!

Believe you are, and you are.

Kate Traeger

Trae Health |  403 Bay St Port Melbourne VIC 3207 | P. 0412 907 548

www.traehealth.com.au

Hope that they will find a cure, and one day be able to live life again. Fully. It’s this hope that has people with CFS never give up on the search for the answers or finding the key that holds the missing piece to their personal health puzzle.

I know this because chronic fatigue syndrome wiped me out in my twenties. When other twenty somethings were blow drying their hair, slapping beauty product on their faces and going clubbing, I was struggling to get out of bed, walk up a flight of stairs or stand at the sink for more than five minutes to wash the dishes, let alone hold down a job. Instead of going on Contiki tours visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa and pashing boys at every destination, I was spending my time on public transport, dragging myself to and from endless rounds of Doctor’s appointments.

The kicker was that there was a large school of belief that I was making it up. That it was all in my head. That I was just lazy. And there were many who were not backwards in coming forwards about telling me so, even yelling at me, screaming at me, hurling abuse at me. Luckily there were people who stood by me – through thick and thin. People who supported me. People who loved me. Because, when the world pulls the rug from under your feet, it’s the people that are there to hold you up that matter the most.

You can read more about my journey with chronic fatigue syndrome in this article I wrote about Theda Myint, who has been reported by a Specialist in Perth, as having the worst case of chronic fatigue he has witnessed during his medical history. I strongly urge you to do so, as Theda is currently struggling for her life, and her mum needs the help and support of the community to help save her beautiful daughter. It also lists details of support groups and CFS information.

Even though I have recovered, there are still certain things that I can’t do. Going to the gym is out. Running on a treadmill for an hour would deplete me to the point that I would need to spend a week in bed afterwards. I won’t be trekking the Kakadu trail any time soon, and full time 9 to 5 work is still a struggle. But, it’s the strength that being sick carved into me, which allows me to approach these limitations from a different perspective.

Sure, in the midst of a fat crisis I sometimes wish I could just go to the gym everyday, but really, I’m not a gym person at heart. Walking along the beach and doing pilates resonates with who I am, and my body responds to it without inducing a crash. I have no interest in going off-road and trekking through the bush any time soon, and I am not a 9 to 5 girl anyway. When I let my body work at the times that it naturally wants to work and sleep when it needs to sleep, well then I can work for 12 hour stretches at a time. Definitely progress when one reflects back on the days when I would struggle to get through a 4 hour shift 3 times a week when I first started working again. Of course, they didn’t know what I was dealing with, because as much as many employers claim to be equal opportunity, they don’t want to know you have to run to the toilets every few hours to fight back the tears from the exhaustion of merely standing upright and straightening a few coat hangers.

I see myself as having a full life. A happy life. A life where I can now move towards my dreams, but most importantly a life where I am able to write, see my friends and work. I must admit I still do find it tough sometimes trying to find work that fits in with what works best for me in terms of maintaining my health and keeping a roof over my head, but I don’t look at that as my health holding me back, I look at that as a creative freelancer who is still carving her way in the world. Yes, I still get tired sometimes, but that’s because I am working a day job whilst also writing. All very normal in terms of tired.

So, there are the things that helped me to get to where I am now. The Doctor I found after ten years of doing the rounds who specialised in nutritional medicine, and sent samples of my hair off to an overseas lab and discovered I had ten times the safe level of copper in my body, which was blocking the absorption of vital nutrients in my body. The nutrients responsible for energy production, and vital for phase one of serotonin production in the brain. The same doctor who tested my blood and told me I had a gluten intolerance which meant every time I ate a piece of bread or poured soy sauce over my noodles, I was destroying the villi in my intestinal tract which are responsible for the transport of nutrients from food into the body. The same Doctor (yes, he’s a bit of a bloody legend) who discovered I had holes in my stomach lining, which meant toxins were leaking into my blood. If that wasn’t enough, my liver was defective and wasn’t able to detoxify itself properly (the liver actually works in two phases – the first breaks down the toxins, and the second phase eliminates them from the body) which meant toxins were also entering into my blood stream and wreaking all sorts of havoc. Fun.

After a decade of struggle and despair, I finally had a proper diagnosis, which mean treatment could be implemented. However, the treatments themselves had their own side effects, and they took time. Years in fact. But my body was on a new journey, and even though some of those treatments knocked my sideways and left me calling from the bath tub for help to get to my bed, I was on the path of recovery. During this time, it was my ex who took me to the Doctor, paid for my medication and nursed me through it. Even though much of our relationship was damaging for me, I wouldn’t be here without him. I thank him for that.

I’ve since moved interstate and spent the past few years rebuilding my life and myself. I’ve achieved so much, not only in my writing career, but also within my day job as a Quality Assurance Manager. But, it’s the simple things I cherish the most. Sitting here sipping on a sauv blanc, safe in the knowledge that I won’t spend days in bed afterwards. Being able to eat a piece of cake, having the energy to play games with my niece, go for a walk down the street, or glue on a pair of false eyelashes and hit town with the girls.

There are still times I crash, because yes I have a predisposition for fatigue and have to watch what I do, but when I look back at what led up to the crash, you can bet that anyone would have fallen in a heap and burnt out too. The next part of this series will document the things I used to do, and do now to restore balance to my body, when I crash and burn out.

First Published in Onya Magazine by Bridget Thompson, from her column “Bridget Jane’s Health Diary”.

Foreword: Bridget Thompson, is an accredited Practicing Dietitian (APD) and the founder and director of New Leaf Nutrition^®.  Having being an overweight and bullied child herself, Bridget is passionately dedicated to making a difference to the lives of as many people as possible.

“Over and over I hear and see people frustrated about not being able to achieve the health, body and energy they desire. There was a time when I would try to sugar-coat, fence-sit and make it sound all nice-n-easy, however, I now see that perhaps this is a significant source of all frustrations in this area. It is imperative that we all wake up and get real with ourselves. There is NO MAGIC PILL.”

Click here to read full article in Onya Magazine